miércoles, 31 de diciembre de 2014

As we make our way into 2015, the Truthout staff is recommitting to a
year of questioning, struggle, intentionality, hard work and, most of
all, hope. A few of us would like to share our personal hopes for the
coming year with you, our readers.

From Rio to Ayotzinapa, from Hong Kong to Ferguson, the past year has
confirmed that protests and revolts will remain an integral aspect of
the global political landscape for quite some time to come. If 2014 was
anything to go by, the decade of the protester may yet be ahead of us.
And who knows what possibilities may still lie beyond?

In 2011, TIME Magazine selected “the protester” as its person of the year. Perhaps “person of the decade” would have been a more accurate depiction.

What great news to ring out the old and start the New Year: Croatia is
getting closer and closer to reaching their country target!!
HipHipHurrah ... almost there!

Sign the petition against TTIP and CETA-e

Petition against transatlantic agreement on trade and investment
(Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, TTIP) was launched in
Croatia. TTIP for months causing preventive public criticism and
MPs. On the one hand, the European Commission argues that the European
Agreement economies reached 120 billion euros, equivalent to 0.5 percent
of GDP in the EU, on the other hand, public organizations and many warn
it's a negotiation that favor companies and directly affects the lives
of all people. TTIP is compared to the infamous Anti-Counterfeiting
Trade Agreement (ACTA), which is 4 July 2012, the European Parliament
rejected due to numerous protests. According to most organizations that
require full transparency of the negotiations, TTIP is yet another
attempt to push controversial elements of ACT in a new package.

Petition Stop TTIP Croatia signed the 1,151,958 citizens EU swarm ab of
signatures in Croatia is now 1276, but it was "only 15 percent of the
total number of signatures required to run this petition in Croatia,"
warned the organizers - a stop TTIP coalition, consists of more than 300
associations, unions and other organizations from all over Europe.

Their main objectives are to prevent and TTIP CETA because they contain
the most critical points, for example. Provision of settlement of
disputes between investors and states (settlement of disputes between
investors and states) and the regulations on the cooperation of
regulatory authorities, which are a threat to democracy and the rule of
law. "We want to prevent the decline of standards in the field of
employment and data protection as well as social and environmental
standards for consumers. We want to prevent public provision (eg. Water)
and cultural property addressed by non-transparent negotiations. ",
they say. The initiative is implemented through the European Citizens'
Initiative mechanism (ICE) and supports alternative trade and investment
policy of the European Union. The petition can be signed here.
< br> BRID Association, GONG and Green Action has also provided
support to the petition, and their statement in full: We invite
people to sign a petition against the conclusion of trade agreements
EU-US and EU-Canada which is already signed by over one million people.
The petition was launched by a stop TTIP coalition, made up of more than
300 associations, unions and other organizations from all over Europe.

Declarative objective of these agreements is to increase trade by
reducing or removing tariffs, which supposedly lead to a new economic
momentum, job creation, and others. But critics warn that the agreement
is the true goal of eliminating the remaining barriers to trade by
harmonizing legislation, most likely reaching deregulation and the
lowering of standards in five key areas: food and agriculture,
environmental protection, labor law, financial regulation and data
protection. One of the most dangerous parts of these trade
agreements is the so-called. "Settlement of disputes between investors
and states" (Eng investor-state dispute settlement. - ISDS). ISDS is a
common part of international investment agreements, which allows foreign
investors, bypassing national legal systems, through international
tribunal to financial compensation for the government of a state, if
assessed their benefits and the potential for investments could be
threatened by changes in legislation and / or policies in the Member
State. These private courts consist of three business lawyer that
decisions are made behind closed doors. If the state loses ISDS
dispute or fails to reach an agreement, the government may be forced to
pay costs of the proceedings of public money. In other words, the
mechanism can effectively ISDS foreign investors to investment risks are
transferred to the whole society, ie. Taxpayers. Even if the complaint
is dismissed or judgment is "in favor of the state", the court may
divide court costs between the two parties. New research network
Friends of the Earth Europe (Foca ) reveals that European taxpayers,
because of ISDS in existing international trade agreements, private
investors so far paid at least € 3.5 billion. This mechanism will
certainly be more often used if the EU's trade agreements with Canada
(CETA) and the US (TTIP), currently being negotiated, is to be signed in
its present form. < br> The study included 127 Foca ISDS
cases associated with bilateral investment agreements. Given the
mysterious nature of the arbitration process, data on the amounts of the
company requested or assigned to them, are not available in many cases,
and presented figures probably represent only the tip of the iceberg.
< br> The main findings of the research are: • According to available data, from 1994 against 20 EU Member States launched 127 procedures of ISDS

• Details. the amounts of compensation that are sought foreign
investors were publicly available for only 62 of 127 cases (48%), with a
total of almost 30 billion euros. • Data on the total amount
allocated to foreign investors (with interest, arbitration costs and
other costs), including only data publicly available on the funds paid
in the case of a regulation, were available in 14 of 127 cases (11 %)
and amounted to 3, 5000000000. • 76% of known cases (97 of 127)
were initiated against the new Member States that joined the EU between
2004 and 2007. • 59% of cases (75 of 127) are related to environmental legislation.

• Data on completed cases the results are made public show that
investors achieve complete or partial victory in 44% of cases • Although

the achievement of such a regulation can have a positive
connotation because the two sides reach an agreement that ends the
dispute without winners and losers, it can still be very expensive for
taxpayers (up to 2 billion euros, how much is paid Poland Dutch
insurance company Eureko 2005. years). Peer-reviewed database of 127 cases of ISDS process you can find here. We invite all citizens to sign a petition and thus help to prevent the adoption of these harmful trade agreements.

The vote last week in the Ukrainian parliament was a seriously disturbing move- it has made reconciliation with Russia near impossible. The parliament voted to work for Ukraine’s membership of Nato, a red rag to a bear.

The truth is this whole Russian-Ukrainian-Western confrontation could be largely solved if the Ukrainian and Western sides wrote on paper that they don’t want to see Ukraine in Nato. This is the key issue for Russia. But it must be written down.

Moscow no longer trusts verbal understandings that can be broken, as when the Reagan Administration gave President Mikhail Gorbachev the distinct impression that the US would not take advantage of the Soviet Union now that the Cold War was over. But it did. President Bill Clinton provocatively began the expansion of Nato which has now reached right up to Russia’s borders. Gorbachev too innocently believed the Cold War was totally over and the US would never contemplate such a move.

Newly revealed documents show that NATO's "kill list" for Afghanistan
operations included not just senior Taliban leaders but those suspected
of being low- and mid-level operatives as well as drug traffickers, Der Spiegel has reported.

Some of the secret documents, which are from 2009 to 2011, are from
the trove released by Edward Snowden, the German paper states.

"The documents show that the deadly missions were not just viewed as a
last resort to prevent attacks, but were in fact part of everyday life
in the guerrilla war in Afghanistan," Der Spiegel reports.

As part of a strategy the White House called "escalate and exit" that
started in 2009, NATO troops would start with a "cleansing"
phase—killing insurgents. The paper cites Michael T. Flynn, the head of
ISAF intelligence in Afghanistan, as saying during a briefing: "The only
good Talib is a dead Talib."

(NaturalNews) A prominent climate scientist who's actively involved in developing technologies to thwart the natural weather patterns of the globe says he's disturbed by the prospect of having to make such drastic changes to the common order of things in order to fight so-called "global warming."

Dr. Matthew Watson from Bristol University in the UK told the media recently that he's "terrified" by many of the geoengineering projects currently in the works to thwart man-made climate change, which is still being hawked by many in mainstream science as a threat to humanity.

Speaking to the Daily Mail Online, Dr. Watson explained how futuristic technologies like spraying chemical particles into the sky to reflect sunlight back into space have the potential to disrupt how rain falls, how plants grow and how life lives.

The Latest Diplomatic Gambit

There are reports that the Palestinian Authority will seek a vote in the
Security Council on a resolution mandating Israel’s military withdrawal
from Occupied Palestine no later than November 2016. Such a resolution
has been condemned by the Israeli Prime Minister as bringing ‘terrorism’
to the outskirts of Tel Aviv, and this will never be allowed to happen.

The United States is, as usual, maneuvering in such a way as to avoid
seeming an outlier by vetoing such a resolution, even if it has less
stringent language, and asks the PA to postpone the vote until after the
Israeli elections scheduled for 2015.

Embedded in this initiative are various diversionary moves to put the
dying Oslo Approach (direct negotiations between Israel and the PA,
with the U.S. as the intermediary) on track.

The French want a resolution that includes a revival of these
currently defunct resolutions, with a mandated goal of achieving a
permanent peace within a period of two years based on the establishment
of a Palestinian state, immediate full membership of Palestine in the
UN, and language objecting to settlement activity as an obstruction to
peace.

Overall, European governments are exerting pressure to resume direct
negotiations, exhibiting their concern about a deteriorating situation
on the ground along with a growing hostility to Israeli behavior that
has reached new heights since the merciless 51-day onslaught mounted by
Israel against Gaza last summer.

Imagine
a sign pinned to the podium on the floor of the US Senate that reads
Ferguson will be ours! Pictured on it is an armored personnel carrier
with the United States flag driving over a mountain of corpses. This
picture shown below says just that about Donbass. This is Kiev’s
official statement on mass murder for the area. This was pinned to the
podium on the floor of the Ukrainian Senate (Verkhovna Rada).

President Petro Poroshenko and his government have run out of wiggle room to deflect charges of genocide any more.

Dr. Shcherbak is especially concerned about the issue because of his
intensive knowledge of “the strategic role of Ukraine,” and also because
of his having served in Washington as Ukraine’s Ambassador. Dr.
Shcherbak also speaks here as being a rare person in his country’s
recent political history: an anti-communist who also is anti-fascist.

The US is able to consume the way it does because of high demand for the
US dollar: it is the world reserve currency. This demand for the dollar
is guaranteed as most international trade is carried out using it. The
international monetary system that emerged from the Bretton Woods
Conference near the end of the Second World War was based on the US
being the dominant economic power and the main creditor nation, with
institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund
eventually being created to serve US interests.

(NaturalNews) (Story by Dr. Kelly Brogan, M.D. , republished from GreenMedInfo.com) Just
this week, the New York Times published an article stating that the
problem of surging whooping cough cases has more to do with flaws in the
current vaccines than with parents' resistance. Could the truth about
vaccines be going mainstream?

So, you're trying to grow a
plant. You take it inside, in a little pot. You feed it fertilizer, put
it under lights, and when it starts to wilt, you prop it up with all
sorts of sticks and tape, and when one fails, you add more. Eventually
it dies. All it wanted was sun, fresh air, clean water, and the magic of
natural soil. I think of this pathetic image when I reflect on the
absurdity of our vaccination program. If it were only absurd, and not
deadly, my reflections would be just that. Instead, I am here to speak
to pregnant women about how to arm themselves with knowledge, to warn
them so there are no regrets.

Meanwhile, 53 high school alumni signed a letter calling for an army
service boycott, denouncing IDF activities in Gaza as 'immoral'

Israeli Merkava tanks take position at an army deployment area near Israel's border with the Gaza Strip. (AFP Photo/Jack Guez)

The IDF “must prepare itself in advance” to switching
from mandatory to an all-volunteer draft model, says research
from the Israel Defense Forces’ behavioral science center,
obtained by Haaretz and published on Sunday.

Six years of brutal austerity cuts imposed by successive ND and PASOK
governments working with the European Union (EU), the European Central
Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) “troika” have
devastated the Greek working class. ND and PASOK, the Greek
bourgeoisie’s traditional parties of rule, are now widely hated.

Many individuals are aware that biotech has developed a seed monopoly largely by patenting genetically modified organisms, but not everyone realizes that Monsanto tried to patent a tomato that had no biotech traits. Now, the European Patent Office (EPO), with help from an international coalition, No Patents on Seeds!, has revoked Monsanto’s fraudulent patent and claim to tomatoes that are naturally resistant to a fungal disease called botrytis.

These natural, non-GMO tomatoes,
like many healthy plants, have a natural resistance to certain pests.
In this case, a fungal disease, but this is not a novel phenomenon. Why
Monsanto would try to claim they created it is about as believable as
Syngenta or Dow saying they invented the sun.

Though plant breeders can help plants
develop this natural pest resistance, much of it is innate – the same
as our own immune systems. When individual plants reproduce, they pass
along exceptional combinations of genes to their offspring. Varying
environments (such as cold, or dry, moist or breezy) favor individuals
with different physical and behavioral traits. Individual plants with
genes that improve their survival will be more likely to pass along
these genes compared to the rest of the population.

There is no genetic manipulation via biotech technologies. None is needed. Mother Nature is pretty smart like that.

"It
is impossible to understand the current assault on public education
without coming to grips with the project of neoliberalism," writes
Giroux. (Image via Shutterstock)

Outside TPP Negotiations,

Hundreds Gather to Protest TPP & Toast the Demise of

Fast Track

"An
hour of loud chanting and noisemakers ensured that the chief
negotiators from the 12 nations involved in Trans-Pacific Partnership
(TPP) talks today were aware of growing U.S. public opposition to the
TPP and the extremely dim prospects that President Barack Obama will
ever obtain Fast Track trade authority."

Few people know the story of Claudette Colvin: When she was 15, she
refused to move to the back of the bus and give up her seat to a white
person — nine months before Rosa Parks did the very same thing.

Most
people know about Parks and the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott that
began in 1955, but few know that there were a number of women who
refused to give up their seats on the same bus system. Most of the women
were quietly fined, and no one heard much more.

Looking back on the year that was, science mavens may notice that
tributes to those who’ve passed on in the preceding 12 months are far
more often filled with stars of stage, screen, politics and sport than
with the pioneering women and men who have bettered our society through
discovery and invention. This is especially true of women, whose
contributions to the sciences are often overlooked or underappreciated.
The following list of 10 women in science who left us in 2014 offers a
nod to individuals whose tireless work made the world a better place,
both in their lifetimes and for years to come.

Nepalese migrants building the infrastructure
to host the 2022 World Cup have died at a rate of one every two days in
2014 – despite Qatar’s promises to improve their working conditions,
the Guardian has learned.

The figure excludes deaths of Indian, Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi
workers, raising fears that if fatalities among all migrants were taken
into account the toll would almost certainly be more than one a day.

But human rights organisations have accused Qatar of
dragging its feet on the modest reforms, saying not enough is being
done to investigate the effect of working long hours in temperatures
that regularly top 50C.

The
mistreatment of migrant workers, including the late or non-payment of
wages, poor quality accommodation and the lack of the freedom to change
jobs or leave the country, has attracted severe criticism from human
rights groups. Photograph: Supplied

Republicans in Congress say they plan to oppose any efforts by the Federal Communications Commission to install net-neutrality rules that demand internet service providers treat all online traffic equally.

Republicans in Congress say they plan to oppose any efforts by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to install net neutrality rules that demand internet service providers (ISPs) treat all online traffic equally.

The FCC is expected to announce in early 2015 new rules for ISPs that will hue close to President Barack Obama's plea for broadband service to be treated like a utility, and for web traffic to remain on somewhat equal footing, disallowing ISPs to prioritize certain content.

Though the concept of net neutrality – what supporters say is a fight for free and open internet – has high support among both conservatives and liberals surveyed in recent polls, as pointed out by TechDirt, Republicans have vowed to fight any attempt to bar the likes of Comcast and Verizon from granting preferential treatment to certain online traffic dependent on payment.

Politico reported on Monday that Republicans, who will have a majority in both the US House and Senate come January, plan to act on threats to quash net neutrality.

Republican Sen. John Thune, who is set to lead the Senate Commerce Committee, is considering a bill that would aim to thwart any such rules presented by the FCC.

Big wins can happen in small places. The West Virginia State Supreme Court finalized a big blow to the biotech giant Monsanto this month, finishing
a settlement causing Monsanto to pay $93 million to the tiny town of
Nitro, West Virginia for poisoning citizens with Agent Orange chemicals.

The settlement was approved last year, but details were worked out only weeks ago as to how the funds were to be spent.

-$9 million will be spent to clean dioxin contaminated dust from 4500 homes.

-$21 million will be spent to test to see if people have been poisoned with dioxin.

-Citizens will be monitored for such poisoning for 30 years, not just a few months.

-An additional $63 million is to be allotted if additional tests for dioxin contamination testing is necessary.

-Anyone who lived in the Nitro area between Jan. 1, 1948, and Sept.
3, 2010 will be tested for dioxin. Although they must show proof they
lived in the area, they will be eligible for testing even if they no
longer live in Nitro.

-Former or present employees of Monsanto are not eligible for any of these benefits.

-An office will be set up to organize testing for Nitro citizens.
The registration of participants is to be overlooked by Charleston
attorney Thomas Flaherty, who was appointed by the court.

Residents have a right to file individual suits against Monsanto if medical tests show they suffered physical harm due to dioxin exposure.

I recently received this incredible article from a fellow GMO fighter that proves the correlation between GOS and autism. The article came from Alliance for Health and I strongly felt the need to expose its findings. The article is below this paragraph.

Autism evidence points to glyphosate toxicity from the overuse of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide on our food.

For over three decades, Stephanie Seneff, PhD, has researched biology and technology, over the years publishing over 170 scholarly peer-reviewed articles.

In recent years she has concentrated on the relationship between nutrition and health, tackling such topics as Alzheimer’s, autism, and cardiovascular diseases, as well as the impact of nutritional deficiencies and environmental toxins on human health.

At a conference last Thursday, in a special panel discussion about GMOs, she took the audience by surprise when she declared, “At today’s rate, by 2025, one in two children will be autistic.”

Why? Evidence points to glyphosate toxicity from the overuse of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide on our food.

For over three decades, Stephanie Seneff, PhD, has researched biology and technology, over the years publishing over 170 scholarly peer-reviewed articles. In recent years she has concentrated on the relationship between nutrition and health, tackling such topics as Alzheimer’s, autism, and cardiovascular diseases, as well as the impact of nutritional deficiencies and environmental toxins on human health.

At a conference last Thursday, in a special panel discussion about GMOs, she took the audience by surprise when she declared, “At today’s rate, by 2025, one in two children will be autistic.” She noted that the side effects of autism closely mimic those of glyphosate toxicity, and presented data showing a remarkably consistent correlation between the use of Roundup on crops (and the creation of Roundup-ready GMO crop seeds) with rising rates of autism. Children with autism have biomarkers indicative of excessive glyphosate, including zinc and iron deficiency, low serum sulfate, seizures, and mitochondrial disorder.

Alterations in rainfall patterns and temperatures due to climate change
are cause for concern amongst Quechua Indian communities in the Peruvian
highlands. http://bit.ly/1ECTHJA

Some
of the “potato guardians” of the five Quechua communities helping to
safeguard native varieties in a 9,200-hectare “potato park” in the
Sacred Valley of the Incas, in the Peruvian highlands department of
Cuzco. Credit: Fabíola Ortiz/IPS

Why? Evidence points to glyphosate toxicity from the overuse of Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide on our food.

For over three decades, Stephanie Seneff, PhD, has researched biology
and technology, over the years publishing over 170 scholarly
peer-reviewed articles. In recent years she has concentrated on the
relationship between nutrition and health, tackling such topics as
Alzheimer’s, autism, and cardiovascular diseases, as well as the impact
of nutritional deficiencies and environmental toxins on human health.

At a conference last Thursday, in a special panel discussion about
GMOs, she took the audience by surprise when she declared, “At today’s
rate, by 2025, one in two children will be autistic.” She noted that the
side effects of autism closely mimic those of glyphosate toxicity, and
presented data showing a remarkably consistent correlation between the
use of Roundup on crops (and the creation of Roundup-ready GMO crop
seeds) with rising rates of autism. Children with autism have biomarkers
indicative of excessive glyphosate, including zinc and iron deficiency,
low serum sulfate, seizures, and mitochondrial disorder.

A fellow panelist reported that after Dr. Seneff’s presentation, “All
of the 70 or so people in attendance were squirming, likely because
they now had serious misgivings about serving their kids, or themselves,
anything with corn or soy, which are nearly all genetically modified
and thus tainted with Roundup and its glyphosate.”

Many individuals are aware that biotech has developed a seed monopoly largely by patenting genetically modified organisms, but not everyone realizes that Monsanto tried to patent a tomato that had no biotech traits. Now, the European Patent Office (EPO), with help from an international coalition, No Patents on Seeds!, has revoked Monsanto’s fraudulent patent and claim to tomatoes that are naturally resistant to a fungal disease called botrytis.

Former Bank of England governor Mervyn King has warned that British banks are too weak to weather another financial crisis, adding that government officials haven't “got to the heart” of what went wrong in 2008.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4 on Monday, King criticised current measures being taken by the BoE to stabilise the economy, including keeping interest rates at a record low – currently at 0.5 percent – for more than five years.

"I don't think we're yet at the point where we can be confident that the banking system would be entirely safe," he told the programme.

“The idea that we can go on indefinitely with very low interest rates doesn't make much sense," he added.

However, King also warned that a sudden increase in interest rates could provide too much of a shock to the British economy, which is only beginning to recover after the global financial crisis in 2008.
King was head of the BoE’s monetary policy department from 2003-13, and was in charge of setting Britain’s interest rates and controlling its money supply.

For years Russell Brand has been one of Britain’s most popular comedians, but over the past 12 months he has also emerged as a leading voice of Britain’s political left. He has taken part in anti-austerity protests, spoken at Occupy Wall Street protests and marched with the hacker collective Anonymous. A recovering addict himself, Brand has also become a leading critic of Britain’s drug laws. He has just come out with a new book expanding on his critique of the political system. It is simply titled "Revolution."

Every year, the State Department issues reports on individual rights in other countries, monitoring the passage of restrictive laws and regulations around the world. Iran, for example, has been criticized for denying fair public trials and limiting privacy, while Russia has been taken to task for undermining due process. Other countries have been condemned for the use of secret evidence and torture.

In the 13 years since the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001, the country’s opium production has doubled, now accounting for about 90 percent of the world’s supply. To learn more, we are joined by Matthieu Aikins, a Kabul-based journalist whose latest report for Rolling Stone magazine explores Afghanistan’s heroin boom. "What has happened in Afghanistan over the last 13 years has been the flourishing of a narco-state that is really without any parallel in history," Aikins says. "This is something that is extraordinary, that is catastrophic, that has grave danger for the future and yet there has been virtually no discussion of in recent years."

The United Nations Committee Against Torture has called for the
investigation and prosecution of attorneys "who provided legal cover" to
US officials who sanctioned acts of torture.

From
left, David Addington, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, and
former Justice Department lawyer John Yoo appear before a House
Judiciary subcommittee in Washington on Thursday, June 26, 2008. The
panel investigated administration lawyers' role in setting rules for CIA
and Defense Department interrogations. (Photo: Andrew Councill / The
New York Times)

Bahrain: “Deprivation of liberty on the sole ground of having exercised
the right to free expression may be considered arbitrary,” say UN
experts urging Bahrain to drop charges against women human rights
activists: http://sm.ohchr.org/1vm2wNh